In iCIMS’ recently published U.S. Hiring Trends quarterly report, we reviewed job demand and supply trends within the United States across all industries, geographies, and company sizes. The quarterly report, which is compiled using iCIMS customer data representing approximately 4,500 organizations, unveiled conclusions about recruitment performance in the first half of 2015 that are sure to impact what next year holds for both job seekers and companies looking to attract best-fit talent.

Here are three key findings from the report:

There are High Concentrations of Job Posting in Key Industries

According to a 2015 CEB report, compared to 2010, it now takes 62 percent longer—five additional weeks—to fill the average vacancy. This slow down exposes organizations to the risk of losing talent to competitors and costs an average of $11.25M per 1,000 vacancies through lost productivity and additional recruiting work. In iCIMS’ Q2 U.S. Hiring Trends report, we identified which industries have a high demand for talent across the United States, defined as those with the highest concentration of jobs to be filled.

The study found that the healthcare, retail, and business services industries continued to stand out in the U.S. job market for producing the highest concentration of job postings. This trend is dominant in most regions of the U.S. with the exception of the Midwest where the greatest number of jobs to be filled fell within the transportation industry. With the high demand for talent in these specific industries, candidate pipeline development will be mission critical. Organizations in these sectors need to consider ways to leverage their current employee networks and social media profiles to amplify job requisition awareness, which drives referral development – perhaps the most tried and true approach to attracting best-fit talent.

The Gap Expands Between Talent Demand and Supply

We are witnessing a major gap in available talent versus available jobs. In a recent Forbes article, “How U.S. Companies Can Fill the Skills Gap,” the authors predict, “By 2020, around the world, there is likely to be a shortage of approximately 40 million high-skilled workers and 45 million medium-skill workers. Against that will be a surplus of 95 million low-skilled workers.” We analyzed the talent demand trends in the first half of 2015, and compared the ratio of new applicants entering the hiring pipeline to open positions that need to be filled.

The transportation and distribution industry had the biggest shortage of applicants, with 0.4 applicants per position. This was followed by the energy; chemicals and utilities; and legal industries where there were also fewer applicants to fill open positions. While applicant volume in each of these industries was low, the candidate pipelines in the healthcare, consulting, and legal industries trended upward from Q1 2015.

We also looked at which industries had the largest surplus of applicants. In the leisure industry in Q2 2015, the number of applicants entering the hiring pipeline was more than twice the number of open positions available (seasonal hiring in this sector may have influenced this trend). This was followed by the gaming industry and the telecommunications industry.

Employers Must Connect with Passive Candidates

According to a 2015 iCIMS survey, 64 percent of job seekers said they would consider joining a talent pool to receive updates from companies they have interest in — even if they were not actively seeking a new position. With that knowledge, we wanted to know which companies these “passive” candidates were opting to connect with. We examined candidates who have expressed passive job interest and registered in talent pools, and tracked how many of them eventually became proactive applicants for specific jobs.

The top three industries — healthcare, finance, and education — account for almost half of all passive applicant interest in any industry. In the first half of 2015, the healthcare industry had the highest percentage of passive interest in jobs and candidates registered in talent pools. With respect to converting passive candidates to active job applicants, the banking and securities industry demonstrated the highest success rate for conversion in Q2.

Companies in these industries should consider technology to support the creation of talent pools to better prepare for future hiring needs. These solutions can help organizations maximize recruitment marketing investments and quickly, easily, and affordably connect with the candidates who could turn into tomorrow's top performers.

As these changes continue to impact the way job seekers search for the right roles and employers approach talent acquisition, iCIMS will continue to analyze its data and provide insights into the hiring landscape on a quarterly basis. Want to know how your industry is performing compared to others? Click here to check out the full report and learn more about the recent trends happening in talent acquisition.